footstepsfrom#27
06-22-2007, 03:05 PM
One of the reason's I like Barak Obama is because this guy is smart, which is a welcome change...and until proven otherwise, he appears to be something almost unheard of among politicos...forthright...."comparatively" so anyway. So far at least, he's running a pretty open campaign and seems to be pretty honest.
When you stop laughing, consider this; Obama just VOLUNTARILY released his own personal list of "earmark" projects that he voted for, and called for the other presidential candidates to do so as well. An earmark is pork barrell spending for the home state electorate...some of it's reasonable...some is not...stuff like $100k for studying the mating habits of tomato worms or money to support the establishment of a museum for shoe cobblers. Now here's the point...ALL members of Congress vote for pork barrell spending...EVERY SINGLE ONE...because it is IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO. Why is it impossible to avoid? Because EVERY bill that's submitted has pork in it...EVERY SINGELE ONE. So if you want to vote to increase federally mandated prison sentences for child molestors, guess what?...some dude in Tennessee is going to get a new bridge out of it. The only way to avoid this would be to vote NO on every bill...both political suicide and bad policy since you'd destroy good bills that deserved support...baby with the bath water so to speak.
This is also why we get these attack adds..."When Congressman Jones was offered the chance to create better schools for our children he shamelessly voted NO...do we really need somebody in Washington who hates children"...of course the real reason Jones voted NO had to do with something entirely different...you get the point...damned if you do, damned if you don't.
In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama talks about this and how difficult some of these decisions are. I can appreciate that...who'd want to cut child molestors a break just so we can keep from supporting a few pork barrell projects? This is the way the game is played and there's nothing much that can be done about it outside of a radical reorganization of government...something that probably takes a generation to do...if we can do it at all. So the point to all this is that Obama has gotten out ahead of the curve...he's literally taken away the ability of any opponent to claim he's hiding behind anything in his voting record.
Like him...don't like him...you've got to admit...that's SMART. Have we seen a politician do this before? I can't remember one. Usually they run and hide from their record.
That's what John McCain's been doing. Unlike Hllary Clinton and the rest of the candidates...all of whom are remaining silent on Obama's challenge to follow his example and release their pork barrell spending record, McCain took a different approach.
He pulled a Bush.
McCain...instead of following Obama's lead, simply said, "I don't have any earmark projects". Actually what "he" (through his spokesman) said was, "While we commend Senator Obama's forthrightness, it would be much better if he followed Senator McCain's lead and didn't request the earmarks in the first place."
What? McCain's never voted for pork?
Note the slippery use of the word "request" here...as if any vote for a bill was a "personal request" for the pork instead of a reluctant vote on the overall merits...I hate it when these people think we're stupid.
Enter the Bloggers...
When he ran last time...I considered him...because of his expereinces as a POW in Viet Nam. But McCain, who is trying to pass himself off as a true believer to the Reaganites, loses my respect when he pulls stuff like this. Note the truth right here: http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/06/john_mccain_lov.php Now to be fair, I'm quoting here from an official DEM party blog...but if you doubt the accuracy of this, you can check out this instead: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firmsum.asp?txtname=Loeffler+Group&year=2002 The opensecrets.org site lets you check out the lobbying actions of all these guys...including the Loefler group working for McCain. They're a non partisan/non profit group publishing records on everybody...REP and DEM alike.
MCCAIN’S TOP FUNDRAISER IS A PORK LOBBYIST FOR EARMARKS AND BRIDGES
Loeffler Earned $3.9 Million for Creating $40 Million in Federal Pork.
McCain’s new Presidential campaign consigliere, and chief fundraising strategist, Tom Loeffler, founder of Loeffler Group has spent much of the last decade as a lobbyist. According to documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Loeffler and his associates have collected $3,920,000 over the years lobbying from the Texas cities of San Antonio, Houston, Pharr, Donna and Mercedes. In return, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, the cities received $40 Million and possibly more in Federal Government pork. [Politico, 4/4/07; Washington Post, 4/4/07; Lobbyist Disclosure Documents Filled with Secretary of the Senate, Citizens Against Government Waste Pig Book 2003-06]
Loeffler Was Paid At Least $240,000 to Lobby for Bridge to Mexico
In 2001 and 2002, The Loeffler Group was paid $240,000 by the Donna-Mercedes Bridge Board as compensation for efforts to lobby the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The proposed bridge would connect the Rio Grande Valley cities of Donna and Mercedes to Rio Bravo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a city of 150,000 residents. “Bridge advocates say it will improve commerce between the United States and Mexico and decrease air pollution along the Texas-Mexico border.” [San Antonio Express-News, 4/19/02; www.publicintegrity.org]
MCCAIN FIGHTS OTHER’S PORK, PUSHES HIS OWN.
“Arizona Sen. John McCain is sponsoring two interesting pieces of legislation. One mounts a direct assault on congressional earmarks, those little morsels of home district pork that lawmakers slip into unrelated spending bills. The other steers $10 million to the University of Arizona to launch an academic center honoring the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Yes, McCain does seem to be saying to himself: Stop me before I sin again… McCain and co-sponsor Jon Kyl, Arizona's other GOP senator, insist their pork proposal isn't hypocritical because they aren't trying to hide anything. It is set out in stand-alone legislation to be vetted on its own merits…in Congress, it seems, the only bad pork projects are those sponsored by somebody else.” [Chicago Tribune, 3/4/06]
MCCAIN BROKE HIS OWN PORK-BARREL SPENDING RULES.
“After years of crusading against ‘pork-barrel’ spending projects in Congressional appropriations bills, Senator McCain may be breaking his own rules. McCain pushed for, and got, $14.3 million for Arizona's Luke Air Force Base inserted into the just-completed fiscal 2004 military construction appropriations conference report. The only problem is the project to acquire more land near the base was not requested.
AAAHAAA! OWNED! Hilarious!
When you stop laughing, consider this; Obama just VOLUNTARILY released his own personal list of "earmark" projects that he voted for, and called for the other presidential candidates to do so as well. An earmark is pork barrell spending for the home state electorate...some of it's reasonable...some is not...stuff like $100k for studying the mating habits of tomato worms or money to support the establishment of a museum for shoe cobblers. Now here's the point...ALL members of Congress vote for pork barrell spending...EVERY SINGLE ONE...because it is IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO. Why is it impossible to avoid? Because EVERY bill that's submitted has pork in it...EVERY SINGELE ONE. So if you want to vote to increase federally mandated prison sentences for child molestors, guess what?...some dude in Tennessee is going to get a new bridge out of it. The only way to avoid this would be to vote NO on every bill...both political suicide and bad policy since you'd destroy good bills that deserved support...baby with the bath water so to speak.
This is also why we get these attack adds..."When Congressman Jones was offered the chance to create better schools for our children he shamelessly voted NO...do we really need somebody in Washington who hates children"...of course the real reason Jones voted NO had to do with something entirely different...you get the point...damned if you do, damned if you don't.
In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama talks about this and how difficult some of these decisions are. I can appreciate that...who'd want to cut child molestors a break just so we can keep from supporting a few pork barrell projects? This is the way the game is played and there's nothing much that can be done about it outside of a radical reorganization of government...something that probably takes a generation to do...if we can do it at all. So the point to all this is that Obama has gotten out ahead of the curve...he's literally taken away the ability of any opponent to claim he's hiding behind anything in his voting record.
Like him...don't like him...you've got to admit...that's SMART. Have we seen a politician do this before? I can't remember one. Usually they run and hide from their record.
That's what John McCain's been doing. Unlike Hllary Clinton and the rest of the candidates...all of whom are remaining silent on Obama's challenge to follow his example and release their pork barrell spending record, McCain took a different approach.
He pulled a Bush.
McCain...instead of following Obama's lead, simply said, "I don't have any earmark projects". Actually what "he" (through his spokesman) said was, "While we commend Senator Obama's forthrightness, it would be much better if he followed Senator McCain's lead and didn't request the earmarks in the first place."
What? McCain's never voted for pork?
Note the slippery use of the word "request" here...as if any vote for a bill was a "personal request" for the pork instead of a reluctant vote on the overall merits...I hate it when these people think we're stupid.
Enter the Bloggers...
When he ran last time...I considered him...because of his expereinces as a POW in Viet Nam. But McCain, who is trying to pass himself off as a true believer to the Reaganites, loses my respect when he pulls stuff like this. Note the truth right here: http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/06/john_mccain_lov.php Now to be fair, I'm quoting here from an official DEM party blog...but if you doubt the accuracy of this, you can check out this instead: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firmsum.asp?txtname=Loeffler+Group&year=2002 The opensecrets.org site lets you check out the lobbying actions of all these guys...including the Loefler group working for McCain. They're a non partisan/non profit group publishing records on everybody...REP and DEM alike.
MCCAIN’S TOP FUNDRAISER IS A PORK LOBBYIST FOR EARMARKS AND BRIDGES
Loeffler Earned $3.9 Million for Creating $40 Million in Federal Pork.
McCain’s new Presidential campaign consigliere, and chief fundraising strategist, Tom Loeffler, founder of Loeffler Group has spent much of the last decade as a lobbyist. According to documents filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Loeffler and his associates have collected $3,920,000 over the years lobbying from the Texas cities of San Antonio, Houston, Pharr, Donna and Mercedes. In return, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, the cities received $40 Million and possibly more in Federal Government pork. [Politico, 4/4/07; Washington Post, 4/4/07; Lobbyist Disclosure Documents Filled with Secretary of the Senate, Citizens Against Government Waste Pig Book 2003-06]
Loeffler Was Paid At Least $240,000 to Lobby for Bridge to Mexico
In 2001 and 2002, The Loeffler Group was paid $240,000 by the Donna-Mercedes Bridge Board as compensation for efforts to lobby the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The proposed bridge would connect the Rio Grande Valley cities of Donna and Mercedes to Rio Bravo, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a city of 150,000 residents. “Bridge advocates say it will improve commerce between the United States and Mexico and decrease air pollution along the Texas-Mexico border.” [San Antonio Express-News, 4/19/02; www.publicintegrity.org]
MCCAIN FIGHTS OTHER’S PORK, PUSHES HIS OWN.
“Arizona Sen. John McCain is sponsoring two interesting pieces of legislation. One mounts a direct assault on congressional earmarks, those little morsels of home district pork that lawmakers slip into unrelated spending bills. The other steers $10 million to the University of Arizona to launch an academic center honoring the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Yes, McCain does seem to be saying to himself: Stop me before I sin again… McCain and co-sponsor Jon Kyl, Arizona's other GOP senator, insist their pork proposal isn't hypocritical because they aren't trying to hide anything. It is set out in stand-alone legislation to be vetted on its own merits…in Congress, it seems, the only bad pork projects are those sponsored by somebody else.” [Chicago Tribune, 3/4/06]
MCCAIN BROKE HIS OWN PORK-BARREL SPENDING RULES.
“After years of crusading against ‘pork-barrel’ spending projects in Congressional appropriations bills, Senator McCain may be breaking his own rules. McCain pushed for, and got, $14.3 million for Arizona's Luke Air Force Base inserted into the just-completed fiscal 2004 military construction appropriations conference report. The only problem is the project to acquire more land near the base was not requested.
AAAHAAA! OWNED! Hilarious!